I know she has a survival instinct, or at least it's been implied a number of times.

But when she's cutting veggies - or anything really, it's like watching for the inevitable horrors of an industrial accident in a shop full of the disabled.

Mrs. PHPaul is okay USING knives, it's how she cares for them (or more precisely, lack thereof) that makes me cringe.

I've long since given up trying to get her to understand that electric "sharpeners" and dishwashers have no place in knife care.

Buy her a cheap-ish set, wait a few years for her to utterly destroy them, rinse, repeat...

My wife is horrible with knives.

First, cannot cut effectively or safely.
Second, she despises sharp knives
Lastly, she refuses to use the new quality kitchen knives I bought that work great, hold an edge well, well balanced and uses our cheap old shit.

Kind of why I don't push her to learn to shoot.

Maybe you should take over the cooking, then?

I'm just finishing resharpening a half dozen sets of scissors, all her kitchen sets, not sure why we have so many, but we do, I don't watch what's done anymore, just wait until she tells me they don't work anymore and need fixin....

Watching my 90 YO dad with advanced Parkinson's cut up an apple is pure torture.
And it lasts like 15 minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by Powers77:

Watching my 90 YO dad with advanced Parkinson's cut up an apple is pure torture. And it lasts like 15 minutes.

I'm not 90 yet (just a few weeks shy of 87) -- I have one of these and it works great! The photo is lifted from the Amazon website, but they're less than five bucks at Walmart.

Wustoff Gourmet set on the Counter for her to use. And she has learned that a knife is not A Screw driver, ice pick or pry bar. But i still keep the Wustoff Clasic in the cabinet.
we also have his and her pans. Same set but she does not respect her pans as much as i do mine

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
My wife is horrible with knives.

First, cannot cut effectively or safely.
Second, she despises sharp knives
Lastly, she refuses to use the new quality kitchen knives I bought that work great, hold an edge well, well balanced and uses our cheap old shit.

Kind of why I don't push her to learn to shoot.

Does she cut carrots by pressing them with her thumb against the dull blade?

We knew a family that used cheap dull blades all their lives, and when we gave them a nice set for Christmas one year thinking we were doing them a favor. They cut themselves within a few days. They probably put them away in a cupboard never to see the light of day, and went back to using their oversized butter knives.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
Maybe you should take over the cooking, then?

I’m the cook in my house. I’m ok with that.

I can, and do cook. Here's what I see as one obvious difference, my scars from sharp things are small and very old. She doesn't have any yet, but I'm guessing they will be worth writing home about if they ever happen.

There isn't any way to get a significant change in methods at this point, most of you will be able to relate to that.

Thus - I can't watch.

Grew up with that, and then married one kinda like it. She has a complete set of Cutco (I know), and thinks they're the cat's ass. The ones that don't have the goofy serrated edge, she flat will not let me sharpen. It's her stuff, I'll respect he wishes, but at a certain point, I did go ahead and stand the edge up on a few with a kitchen steel - in spite of her fevered protests at the time. She's firmly convinced that they all have some super-secret edge geometry that only Cutco can sharpen, and attempting to do so will void the warranty. I finally checked once and that just isn't so. I finally gave up on her dull knives and asked for a quality 8" chef's knife for Christmas one year and got a Zelite 10" and an Opinel 8", which I use the most often. I told her she wasn't allowed to use either of them. I keep them razor sharp.

Today, I got my nine year old son to help me prep tomatoes and cucumbers for tzatziki and gyros, walked him through the basics of knife skills while the wife eyed us suspiciously from the the other room. He used the Opinel and did great, nobody got maimed or killed.

My wife is getting better and it's because I keep the knives sharp and show her the proper techniques.

The one thing that always mystifies me with women is that they will simply grab the closet knife at hand, NOT the correct knife for the job. Like cutting bread with a steak knife because the steak knife was a whole 2 feet closer than the bread knife in the block. Or cutting a block of cheese with a butter knife when there are 3 different better knives suited for that right there. Drives me crazy.

My wife also struggles with using proper knife technique and using the proper knife for the job. She loves using steak knives for everything and if it isn't a steak knife - she's using the birds beak paring knife to cut something on a cutting board.

as a former Journeyman Meat Cutter/Meat Dept Manager, with a drawer full of the proper knives, I struggle watching others , in person, on TV etc use a knife,


using a knife to prepare meat is a skill learned over years,


many folks do not get that,, esp the Bozos on tv

My wife gives me the heebie-jeebies when she uses a knife. She insists on cutting or peeling towards herself.


.

I finally found a support group. Not only can I not watch my wife use a kitchen knife, she’s downright abusive to them. I have a few knives I do not let her use, because she broke off the tip of one of our chef knives. Last night in the middle of cutting up vegetables I caught her stirring a pot of boiling potatoes with the knife she was using to cut vegetables. Which is why she can’t use my knives not kept in the kitchen block.

My wife and I both cook a lot, but she won't use my primary knife, and I won't use hers. Both are around 35 years old, but I keep my Henckels razor sharp, and she keeps her MAC santoku just barely sharp enough to cut anything and likes it that way for some reason.

Good carbon steel knives sitting in a dishwasher overnight, then tossed into a drawer with dozens of other utensils, sliding around and beating up on each other. Constant complaints about dull knives.

She cooks. I cook. She has her cutlery in her drawer. I have my cutlery in a chef's knife roll. I have no use for hers. She knows better than to touch mine.

Once in a while I will take pity, haul her damaged stuff out to the work bench, patiently hone out the nicks and gouges, hone the edges and reset with my good steel, wash, dry, and put into a storage tray. That usually lasts for a few days at most.

Stories from other people’s relationships frequently make me thankful for my wife. She’s not crazy, not overly emotional or touchy, and can handle a knife in the kitchen. She was the one who took a couple cooking classes and taught me the proper technique for chopping onions. We do have a Cutco set (with both straight and serrated edges, each its own use), and while those serrated carving knives aren’t as great as I’d imagined, they do the job. And I’ve added specialty boning and Granton blade knives to the collection, I admit Cutco misses the mark with these.

But bottom line, I met my wife in college, when I hadn’t a clue as to what was really needed in a relationship/partnership, and she is a badass woman who doesn’t abuse knives. Thanks for opening my eyes to another way that she is awesome.